c. Extracting specific information
Listeners very often listen to something only to get some pieces of information. They can listen to a radio show but only to get the information about
their favourite musician, for instance. It does not mean the listeners do not understand the rest of the information; they are still aware of it, only not very
focused. In the classroom, the example of activity is listening to a weekly weather forecast.
14
Teacher may ask the students to find out if the weather is sunny on Tuesday. Hence they will focus on the keyword sunny and Tuesday when they are
listening to the forecast. d.
Extracting detailed information. This is the opposite of listening to get the general picture.
A listener‘s purpose can be to get as much information as possible while heshe listens
intensively. The listener should be able to extract the details from the utterance. The examples are when someone is listening to an important lecture, to the
announcement in the airport, or to the ingredients of a recipe. In these kinds of listening, details are significant.
e. Recognizing function and discourse pattern.
When native English speakers hear someone say ―for example‖ they know that what will follow is an exam
ple. When they hear ―in addition‖, they will expect another piece of information. When they hear ―on the contrary‖, they know
that what comes after is a contrasting idea. Recognizing these patterns is necessary because when people listen, these patterns give clues of what to come
and more importantly, give some time for listeners to think.
4. The Teaching of Listening
Listening can be taught intensively or extensively. This will lead to the terms intensive and extensive listening. Intensive listening is the common technique. It
usually occurs in the classroom, where students practice listening to one or multiple material thoroughly under the guidance of the teacher. Broughton
describes this as ―the close study and exploitation of a text for its meaning and the
14
Ibid., p. 217.
language used‖.
15
The listening exercises normally involve three steps: pre- listening, listeningwhile-listening, and post-listening. These three steps are
explained by Field as the following:
a. Pre-listening
In pre-listening activity, teacher and students prepare to listen. This usually involves brainstorming vocabulary, reviewing grammatical points, and discussing
the topic of the passage. Teacher is supposed to set the purpose of the activity and get the learner to be motivated.
b. While-listening
This is the main activity where students listen to tapes or audio. Before the students listen, the teachers have to set the questions or instruction. This way,
students will know what to doexpect and not become clueless when they are listening. The tasks may have purposes as stated before, like finding the main
topic or finding specific information. They can also involve labelling e.g., marking a map, selecting e.g., choosing one out of five picture based on
description, form-filling e.g., registration form, etc. This step may end with correcting the answer together.
c. Post-listening
In this last step teachers usually recall words, phrases, idioms, expressions, etc that appear on the audio. Teachers may ask the students what the words mean,
what is the synonym of the word, etc. Teachers may also start a new discussion from the topic.
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The popular format for the exercise is by using audio tapes. Aside from being cheap and easy to use, tapes allow students to hear a large variety of voices, which
is good for improving their skill. As the technology advanced, some alternatives to tapes emerged. Heinich listed compact discs or CDs and digital files or MP3s as
15
Geoffrey Broughton, et al., Teaching English as a Foreign Language, New York: Routledge, 1980, p. 66.
16
John Field, ―The Changing Face of Listening‖, in Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya eds, Methodology in Language Teaching, New York: Cambridge University Press,
2002, pp. 242 – 245.
substitutions for audio tapes.
17
Recently, CDs and MP3s are even more obtainable.
Video can also be an excellent option. Harmer noted the specialties of video, like the availability of visual clues and cultural references, and simply being
interesting enough to boost students‘ motivation.
18
According to Rubin, there are three characteristics that should be considered when selecting video.
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They are shown on Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 The Characteristics in Selecting Video
Aspects Characteristics
Video
1 There must be sufficient visual support in the forms of
physical settingprop, action, and interaction. The visual support is crucial to help learners form their understanding,
especially if there is a plot line involved in the passage. 2
The video must have good production value so there will be no distracting aural or visual noise.
3 The video should not be subtitled or dubbed. Rubin argued
that subtitles only help if the goal is to improve vocabulary mastery, not listening skill. It is because subtitles prevent
the students from listening to the sound and using visual clues, while dubbing obviously means no English at all.
Rubin‘s argument is also supported by Ur who stated that subtitle will be distracting for EFL learners, even if it is in
English.
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4 Length of segment should be considered based on the level
17
Robert Heinich, et al., Instructional Media and Technologies for Learning, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002, 7
th
edition, pp. 175 – 179.
18
Jeremy Harmer, 2001, op. cit., p. 282
19
Joan Rubin, The Contribution of Video to the Development of Competence in Listening, in David J. Mendelsohn and Joan Rubin ed, A Guide for the Teaching of Second
Language Listening, San Diego: Dominie Press, Inc., 1995, pp. 154 – 157.
20
Penny Ur, Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 66.
